Now that's a BIG bug!

 The other day the kids found this bug out on the back porch.  It's dead.  Kaylee thought it was a spider at first!

Trevor thought it was fun to poke at it.  

(Trevor is holding one of his best friends--his blankie!)

Anybody want some free sand?

We've got sand coming out of our ears here.  We will give it to you for FREE!!!

 This empty lot you see here is where most of the sand came from.  Yeah, we are the lucky ones who get to live right across the street from it.  It was left for the intent to build a L.D.S. church building but I heard that the lot was too small.  Then, while I was shoveling all the sand this morning I learned from an irate neighbor who was walking her dogs, that the stingy man who owns property outside of our neighborhood blocked off a main road that leads to this lot and will not allow it to be opened.  So if we did have a church there, the traffic would be too bad on Sundays because the main road is blocked off!  I do hope someone builds something on it soon because we are all sick of all the sand that blows from it!  It would be wonderful if they built a grassy park or something like that.  I doubt they will though.  Someone will probably start building something there the minute we decide to move (which won't be soon because we will probably stay here for a while!).

 Cleaning up sand is not fun--especially in the heat of the day. 

That's why I started doing this at 5:30 am and I got all finished an hour later!

For some reason it makes me think of the country song that goes like this:  

"I've got ocean front property in Arizona...from my front porch you can see the sea!" 

--except from our front porch we just see the sand.

M.R.E.'s, Fireworks, Forts, and Airplanes

 While we were gone on our vacation, our cats, Ruthie & Casey decided to sample some M.R.E's that were in the girls closet.  Word to the unwise: Store your MRE's in a place where cat's cannot get into when they are home alone!

 For the 4th of July, we walked down a few streets to watch fireworks with our friends the Hudson's.

 From left to right there is Alison, Trevor, Cassie (saying "hi"), Kaylee, Peyton,

Justin (standing up by the truck), Jeremy, and Zane.

 Trevor is fascinated by the fireworks!

 Alison loved the sparklers!

 This is the fort that Jeremy made for the girls in their room.  What fun!

 Here we are at the Phoenix airport getting ready to send Jeremy home back to Florida.

 It's so nice when strangers take your family picture for you.  A nice man saw me taking pictures of everyone and offered to take one of all of us!  Thank you nice man.

This is the last picture I took of Jeremy before he got on his plane.  

We will miss you Jeremy! See you next year!

Flip flop doll rides.

 I caught Alison playing one day on the floor with her dolls and flip flops.

This is the kind of thing that happens when your kids don't watch TV.  

They start building their creative side and their imagination!

Flip Flop Cars. Or maybe they are airplanes?  I don't know.  Wheee!

New family pictures = happy wife.

If you hadn't noticed, I posted a family picture of us all together on the top of our blog up there. Don't we look good? Just kidding.  We have never done this when Jeremy was visiting us, so it's a big deal! (To me anyway!)  There are many more adorable pictures that Sears took of us.  Thanks to my family-especially Justin, for being such a great sport about the whole "going to Sears to get our family pictures taken" ordeal!

The disadvantages of living in Yuma in the summertime.

 This is our pool after a dust/rain storm.  See all the sand at the bottom?  Not fun. 

Lucky for us we have a decent pool vacuum to clean it all up!

 Good thing the neighbor had those palm trees trimmed just in time for our picture!

And this is a spot of grass that quickly turned yellow after only a few hours of being covered with our pool cover (to dry)!  Insane!  Needless to say, it is very hot and dry here in the summer.  However, wintertime is the best weather anyone can ask for here!  That is why it is a place where all the snowbirds (a.k.a "Winter Visitors") come and live from about October to April.  Then we have to deal with the crowds in the stores and on the streets.  It's funny to be in a store and hear snowbirds complain about the long lines and the crowds when they are the ones who are causing them!

Some pictures from our vacation...in no particular order.

And here are some pictures from our trip up north, specifically CA and ID.  Why did I take a picture of a chicken?  Because when we were in Idaho, my sister Laura and her family killed their 180 or so chickens in 2 days.  We got to watch the whole process.   I took pictures and videos of it all but I don't think you all want to see all the gore...so here are some not so gory pictures!  (By the way the chicken's above and below are awaiting their turn to have their heads chopped off! Poor things!  The kids (Alison and Tori) below are sitting on the baskets so that the chickens won't run away.

Here are a bunch of chickens after the killing, de-feathering, scorching, and trimming.

Now they have been weighed, and are ready to go in the freezer.  

While everyone was killing chickens, Kaylee made a dandelion stem crown and stuck some of the flowers in Alison's hair below!

Oooo!  Pretty!

Jeremy is having fun shooting guns.

So is Kaylee!  Don't worry, this is just a BB gun.

 We drove lots and lots of miles!  I am glad the kids slept some of the time.

 At my mom's house, Trevor found a hole in the fence just the perfect size for him to crawl through!

 On my Dad's birthday(June 13), we all went to Zion's Camp to have a pic-nic and to just relax.

I wish I had gotten a picture of my dad though. 

 Here is my mom, Kaylee, Alison, and Wesley sitting on the raft at Zion's Camp!

 And Justin, Trevor, and Jeremy are trying out the paddle boat.

 On the way to Laura's house we stopped to show the kids what snow looked and felt like!

Wow, it's pretty cold, isn't it Alison?

 Here is our family in the front yard of Grandma & Grandpa Jones house.

 And here is Grandma and Grandpa Jones with the kids! 

 The kids love to swing!

It's soooooo relaxing, wouldn't you agree Trevor?  Uh..Trevor?

 Justin and I even got to get away without the children for a night to celebrate our 10th anniversary!  Thanks mom!  

 We even got to go to the Sacramento Temple before we went home to be parents again!

****************************************

We had tons of fun on our vacation and it seems like it wasn't long enough.  We didn't get to see everyone we wanted to see, but hopefully we will get to see them next time!

Special thanks to Karen McMurphy for taking care of our kitties and fishies while we were away!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I have learned how to make my own laundry detergent! I have even used it on my clothes and it seems to clean them just as well as commercial laundry detergent! And it is so easy too! Let me show you how...

 All you need is Borax, Baking Soda, Washing Soda, and pure bar soap!  

The recipe I am going to give you makes 9 1/2 cups of laundry detergent.

First grate with an ordinary kitchen cheese grater, two ordinary bars of pure soap (Like Ivory).

Then in a large bowl or container, add the freshly grated soap flakes.  To this add 4 cups of Baking Soda.  Then add 2 cups of Borax and 2 cups of Washing Soda.  Mix it all well with your hands.  Put in a container large enough to hold all the detergent and secure with lid.  To wash clothes, just add 1/2 cup to each load of laundry and wash as normal!  Simple, cheap and effective!

*This recipe was taken from the book "Homemade" by Reader's Digest

**Note:  I had a hard time trying to find Washing Soda in my area but I finally found it in the laundry isle in "Frys" which is our grocery store nearest to us!  The other items I found at Walmart (Borax) and Sams Club (baking soda), but they will all most likely be in a grocery store in the laundry and soap isle!

Have fun saving money!

WE LIKE ICE CREAM!

Ice Cream is something we seem to eat a lot here at the Jones home (especially in the summer).  We eat it at least once a week I think!  I guess you can say that ice cream is our weakness!  Here is a picture of Trevor after eating some rocky road ice cream! I think he stuck his whole face in his bowl in an effort to get the last bit of his ice cream!  Good thing he had a bib on!

I know how to sew a skirt!

 Yesterday I sewed and sewed and finished making a skirt for Alison.  She picked out the material and I made the skirt.  I admit, I did have to look up a few things on the internet on how to do some of it, but I think that I did okay.  Putting the ruffle on was the hardest task.  The last time I sewed a skirt was in high school and I probably had lots of help from my mom and teachers too!

Now I am working on Kaylee's skirt!  I think I am getting the hang of it!  

I'll post her finished skirt soon!

I know a young girl who swallowed a key.....

Oh mercy me, she swallowed a key!  She swallowed the key to tease her sister, but she realized now that she should have just kissed her!

Yes, our little Alison accidentally swallowed a small key on the 14th of May.  It is now the 18th of May and there has been no sign of the key yet--unless we just didn't see it sneak out after she went to the bathroom!  I guess the story goes like this (I wasn't actually there so I am just guessing)....Alison took Kaylee's key that belonged to a small padlock and wouldn't give it back.  I guess she thought of put it in her mouth because Kaylee wouldn't reach in there to get it back.  Little did Alison know but that key had a different idea and slipped on down and ended up in her tummy.  Kaylee ran to me and frantically told me that Alison swallowed a key!  We didn't really know what to do, so Justin looked up how to access the situation online. The people online who have had similar experiences as this one, basically said that we just need to monitor her stools every time she goes potty to make sure it comes out.  At first we thought she had swallowed two keys because Kaylee had two and couldn't find the other one, but she finally found it!  Whew!  I hope I see the key Alison swallowed soon and that it won't cause any trouble!!!  So, if you can and if you remember, pray that she will be okay and the key will come out! 
(Alison thinks the key is now stuck in her belly button!)  I hope not!

We got a new pool!